“E finished the pacchia!” claimed Giorgia Meloni, in the middle of the electoral campaign, in mid-September. “The party is over”: if they choose it, the leader of the ultra-conservative Brothers of Italy party will go to battle with Brussels, she swears to the Italians. Six months later, the new President of the Council, elected to general surprise, has watered down her wine. opportunism? Or need to show your credentials to obtain the 200 billion euros from the recovery plan? If, in Brussels, many doubt the sincerity of its European transformation, Meloni has nonetheless become popular.
Europe’s political laboratory, Italy has produced a new prototype: the chameleon leader, liberal, hard-line on immigration and LGBT rights while supporting arms shipments to Ukraine, without for all that denying its fascist origins. A transalpine version of “at the same time”, whose success has already crossed borders.
When Jordan Bardella proposes to Republican deputies not to oppose them with an RN candidate in the next legislative elections if they vote for his motion of censure, who is he looking at? “This alliance of the rights, Meloni succeeded in forming a coalition with Berlusconi’s party, Forza Italia, and with the League”, observes Marc Lazar, professor of political sociology at Sciences Po.
Suffice to say that Meloni’s ambitious bet, to form a large radical, conservative and sovereignist right-wing party, will be followed with attention at the Elysée. If she succeeds, it will no longer be a surprise. But a danger for Europe.